WOODSTOCK – Undaunted by the rain, a large crowd showed up at the common outside the post office for the dedication of sculpture of a hand-crank telephone.

The ceremony took place shortly before events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the nearby Whitman Memorial Library.

Town Manager Vern Maxfield said the event marked the 25th anniversary of the last phone call made by a hand-crank phone belonging to the Bryant Pond Telephone Co. on Oct. 11, 1983.

The company, which was owned by Barbara and Elden Hathaway, was acquired by Oxford County Telephone & Telegraph Co. in that year.

The 14-foot tall, 1-ton black steel statue was created by Woodstock sculptor Gil Whitman. T.W. Dick of Gardiner put the pieces together after Whitman fabricated them. Whitman, a cousin of Elden’s, said the project came about after he was commissioned by the town to work on the common.

“They got a little more than they bargained for,” Whitman said.

Whitman said he planned on putting in a stone wall around the common with engraved flagstones, and then a gazebo. He said the sculpture would add a sense of balance to the park and, noting a nearby site where the town’s train station once stood, said it would compliment the town’s history.

“This lot right here is where it all began,” Whitman said. “This is the very heart of the historic area of the town.”

The sculpture’s crank is operational, and Whitman plans to add a bell that will sound when the crank is turned. He also will put a plaque on the sculpture in memory of the Hathaways.

Linda Hathaway Stowell, the daughter of Barbara and Elden, recalled working for $1 an hour at the phone company during college if she needed money. She said the switchboard would be mobbed during winter storms by calls from children wondering if the schools were closed.

Susan Glines, Stowell’s sister, said the switchboard had been in their house since she was 7 years old and it taught her many things. Her list included the importance of families, how to handle crises, how to get information, compassion, privacy and courtesy.

“I learned to love to talk on the phone,” Glines said to laughter. “And I still do that.”

Maxfield said the town does not own the common, but that landowner Richard Chick had been “very gracious” in working with the town. Maxfield said plans to develop the common as a remembrance park have been ongoing in recent years, and the date of the planned dedication dovetailed with the Whitman Memorial Library’s celebration.

“It worked out very nicely, I think,” Maxfield said.

The library, named for Allenson and Eleanor Whitman, was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1995.

“It’s gone from a small, basically two-room library to what it is today,” Maxfield said.

Groundbreaking for the library’s expansion, which nearly doubled the size of the building, occurred in 1998. Maxfield said the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation gave a total of $60,000 to the project, including $20,000 that was appropriated after the town raised a matching amount. The town raised $40,000 toward the project, and the library also received $25,000 from the Betterment Fund created by Bethel resident William Bingham II.

The library displayed materials on the town’s history on Monday. Other events included a checkers tournament, children’s games, a demonstration by professional archer Matt Burke, and music by the Richard Felt Band.

“It’s wonderful,” said library volunteer Rosalie Poland. “People are having a wonderful time.”